Quite a few people, particularly freelance writers collectively with myself, have prolonged used our smartphones as secondary laptop structures — I estimate that extra than half of the hundreds of work emails sent in 2016 have been typed on a mobile tool. Heck, I’ve even published a Forbes put up absolutely on a telephone.
But Samsung is taking the smartphone-as-computer difficulty to a few other stages with Dex, a US$100 fifty dock that turns the Galaxy S8/S8+ into a handy laptop (although a few 0.33 birthday celebration websites, like Mobile Fun, are promoting it at less expensive at US$130).
To get started, you may want the Dex, a Galaxy S8/S8+, a TV or monitor that supports HDMI enter, an HDMI cable (now not covered in the Dex package deal), a USB-C power source for the Dex (essentially a charger for the S8), a mouse and keyboard. If you’re maintaining track at home, that is 5 extra pieces you will need. If you are the user of a stressed keyboard and mouse, you’ll need USB-A ports, which the Dex provides within the device’s again (in conjunction with an Ethernet port). I opted for my Dell Bluetooth mouse/keyboard combination that only wishes one USB dongle.
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The first time you plug in the S8, the Dex will guide you through a short set-up, and after that, you will be taken to a pc set-up that resembles a regular Mac computing device. The lowest is a “dock” with a number of your apps, and scrolling through them brings about this Mac-like animation wherein the highlighted app grows in length. The app tray is placed on the left nook, in which the Windows “begin” button will be. Whatever custom launcher/app icon you have selected for your S8 disappears here — the laptop uses Samsung’s stock icons and look.
The set-up display screen. Ben Sin. The set-up shows a display screen. The Samsung Dex computing device, as defined by way of a manner of Samsung. Samsung The Samsung Dex laptop, as described using Samsung. Most zero.33 birthday celebration apps you open may be mobile variations of the apps — that means it opens as a small vertical rectangle — but some, like Gmail, seem to have been optimized, making sure in a much broader container that shows an additional plane of records. Samsung’s very own apps, together with calendar, and internet browsers, were optimized for the big display experience. Most app home windows may be resized or moved across the computing tool.
Here is a video of me the use of the Dex:
When I’m using the S8 as a mobile telephone, I use Chrome in place of Samsung’s very own net browser; however, at the Dex, it is worth sticking with Samsung’s private. It’s faster and smoother and loads net pages in laptop format in preference to cellular. I opened masses of apps, including the Forbes CMS on which I’m penning this right now, without any issues. The internet surfing revels in at the Dex is generally stunning, except it doesn’t assist Flash, so a few pages may not load. Because the Dex is absolutely your telephone strolling on a show/TV, you can, of the path, ship messages like Whatsapp direct from a PC. You may even make calls. But the Dex dock covers the S8’s headphone jack so that you’ll need to pair the device to a Bluetooth speaker or clearly address virtually crappy sound out of the S8’s mediocre single speaker.
- The Dex. Ben Sin
- The Dex.
- Side view of the Dex. Samsung
- Side view of the Dex.
Opening a couple of domestic windows mainly did no longer gradually the S8/Dex down. Samsung Opening more than one domestic window extraordinarily did no longer slow the S8/Dex down. On the fourth day of the Dex’s use as a computer, I am having written a couple of movie evaluations, and presently, this placed up, and the overall enjoyment a nice Marvel. The S8 comes what might also run smoother as a PC than as a phone (that is laggy and slower than, say, the OnePlus 3T or Huawei Mate nine Pro); however, ultimately, it cannot examine to the usage of a terrific laptop.
There are some now not-so-minor insects right now that need to be constant with time. The Spotify app will now not run, and also, you can’t reproduction the textual content of the Gmail app. It hasn’t gotten in the way of my paintings enjoy, however, but if those bugs are although there a month later, that’ll be each different tale.
Overall, the Dex works as advertised. The S8 can indeed be a work PC, at least for journalists and writers. If I changed into a photograph fashion designer or video editor, then the Dex would not fare as properly. But the huge query is, do we actually need this element? As stated in advance, you want a keyboard and mouse to run the Dex, and in case you very own a keyboard, you already non-public a pc. So under what situations could you want the Dex? The only one I can think about is if you’re a commercial enterprise visitor and you want to travel very, very mild — the S8, Dex, a small keyboard, mouse, and HDMI cable is all you will need to paintings at the hotel (you will use the motel TV as the show).
Right now, I see it as an amusing little toy to show off the S8’s powers. But hiya, it’s miles a shape of what folks who buy the Galaxy S8 goals, due to the reality as I’ve written in advance than, the S8 is a laggy-as-hell telephone this is more fragile than unique gadgets. You’re not searching for the S8 as it’s the quickest phone or maximum useful cellphone. You’re shopping for it due to the reality you like to mess around with cool tech toys. And the Dex is a rattling cool one at that.
